Patents by Inventor Christopher Rohlf
Christopher Rohlf has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
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Publication number: 20230020873Abstract: A device is configured to process contactless payments by wirelessly reading account information from enabled payment instruments and providing the account information, along with other information, to a remote payment processing system. The device has an embedded reader, such as a near-field communications (NFC) reader or a radio-frequency identification (RFID) reader. The operating system of the device has a device driver that provides access to the embedded reader. The device driver is implemented as part of the operating system kernel in order to protect it from access by non-privileged software. A POS application installed on the device uses the device driver to obtain payment instrument information from a payment instrument such as a credit card. Before providing the payment instrument information to the POS application, the device driver encrypts the payment instrument information using a public key provided by the payment processing system.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 26, 2022Publication date: January 19, 2023Inventors: Christopher Rohlf, Richard Neal Harris, Fredrick Lee
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Patent number: 11507958Abstract: A point-of-sale (POS) application is installed on a computing device of a merchant to process purchase transactions in conjunction with a network-accessible payment processing system. Software is also installed on the computing device to evaluate trustworthiness of the device and to prevent the device from performing sensitive operations such as purchase transactions when the device is deemed to be untrustworthy. The software obtains a security policy from the payment processing system and locally stores the security policy. The security policy specifies trust criteria and enforcement instructions, which can be updated from time to time when the payment processing system is accessible. The software evaluates device trustworthiness by gathering information regarding device conditions and comparing the information to the trust criteria. If the trust criteria are not satisfied, sensitive operations are disabled.Type: GrantFiled: September 26, 2018Date of Patent: November 22, 2022Assignee: Block, Inc.Inventor: Christopher Rohlf
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Patent number: 11494762Abstract: A device is configured to process contactless payments by wirelessly reading account information from enabled payment instruments and providing the account information, along with other information, to a remote payment processing system. The device has an embedded reader, such as a near-field communications (NFC) reader or a radio-frequency identification (RFID) reader. The operating system of the device has a device driver that provides access to the embedded reader. The device driver is implemented as part of the operating system kernel in order to protect it from access by non-privileged software. A POS application installed on the device uses the device driver to obtain payment instrument information from a payment instrument such as a credit card. Before providing the payment instrument information to the POS application, the device driver encrypts the payment instrument information using a public key provided by the payment processing system.Type: GrantFiled: September 26, 2018Date of Patent: November 8, 2022Assignee: Block, Inc.Inventors: Christopher Rohlf, Richard Neal Harris, Fredrick Lee
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Patent number: 10579783Abstract: Systems and methods for identity authentication verification are disclosed. First image data corresponding to a first image is submitted in response to a request to authenticate the identity of a user of a device. A second image is captured shortly after the first image is captured. The first and second image data and/or metadata associated with the first and second image are compared and analyzed to determine if the first image is an authentic image captured by a camera of the device and if the person depicted in the first image is the user of the device.Type: GrantFiled: July 31, 2017Date of Patent: March 3, 2020Assignee: Square, Inc.Inventors: Todd Aument, Christopher Rohlf
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Patent number: 10552308Abstract: Techniques for determining whether processes are running on a computing device are described. As an example, a detection process may create a virtual mapping of data to memory of the computing device. The detection process may access a file system storing special files including attributes of virtual memory mappings. The detection process may analyze the attributes of the virtual memory mapping, such as an amount of data stored or shared by the memory mapping, to determine that another process is sharing the memory mapping with the detection process. The detection process may send data to a server associated with the computing device indicating that a process other than the detection process is operating on the computing device.Type: GrantFiled: June 23, 2017Date of Patent: February 4, 2020Assignee: Square, Inc.Inventor: Christopher Rohlf
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Patent number: 10528928Abstract: A payment terminal can have an integrated memory scanning system that has direct access to the memory of the payment terminal. By having direct access to the memory of the payment terminal, the memory scanning system can access information about the operating system and the applications of the payment terminal to determine if the operating system or applications are performing unauthorized or forbidden actions, which may indicate that a fraudulent transaction or tamper attempt is occurring at the payment terminal. The memory scanning system can determine if an unauthorized action is occurring by comparing the information regarding the operating system or applications obtained from the memory to test criteria stored by the memory scanning system. In addition, the memory scanning system can also have a direct communications with a payment server using information from a network stack in memory that can be accessed directly by the memory scanning system.Type: GrantFiled: April 29, 2019Date of Patent: January 7, 2020Assignee: Square, Inc.Inventors: Afshin Rezayee, Mary Kay Bowman, Christopher Rohlf
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Patent number: 10410189Abstract: A payment terminal can have an integrated memory scanning system that has direct access to the memory of the payment terminal. By having direct access to the memory of the payment terminal, the memory scanning system can access information about the operating system and the applications of the payment terminal to determine if the operating system or applications are performing unauthorized or forbidden actions, which may indicate that a fraudulent transaction or tamper attempt is occurring at the payment terminal. The memory scanning system can determine if an unauthorized action is occurring by comparing the information regarding the operating system or applications obtained from the memory to test criteria stored by the memory scanning system. In addition, the memory scanning system can also have a direct communications with a payment server using information from a network stack in memory that can be accessed directly by the memory scanning system.Type: GrantFiled: September 30, 2017Date of Patent: September 10, 2019Assignee: Square, Inc.Inventors: Afshin Rezayee, Mary Kay Bowman, Christopher Rohlf
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Publication number: 20190102760Abstract: A payment terminal has a clock management unit for providing clock signals to components of the payment terminal. The payment terminal also has a wireless communication interface for communicating wireless signals. A processing unit of the payment terminal may monitor clock signals provided by the clock management unit and determine a phase and frequency difference between a clock signal provided to a component producing RF noise and a clock signal provided to a wireless communication interface of the payment terminal. When RF noise present in the received wireless signal falls below a threshold, the processing unit may sample the received wireless signal.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 30, 2017Publication date: April 4, 2019Applicant: Square, Inc.Inventors: Afshin Rezayee, Mary Kay Bowman, Christopher Rohlf